Saudi’s ACWA Power to establish 3 solar projects in Egypt

Saudi Arabian water and power project developer ACWA Power has been awarded three solar photovoltaic power projects by Egypt.

The projects will be built in Benban, under Egypt’s Round 2 of the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) programme, the Saudi firm said in a statement on Tuesday.

Acwa Power will develop, finance, build, own, and operate the three projects with an aggregate capacity of 165.5 MW and total investment value of $190 million.

Gamal Abd-Al Rehem, chairman of the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC); and Mohammad Abunayyan, chairman of Acwa Power, signed Monday the power purchase agreement in the presence of Egypt’s Prime Minister Sherif Ismail.

The projects, which are located in the Aswan Province in Benban, will have capacity to generate 67.5 MW, 70 MW and 28 MW individually. The projects are expected to achieve financial close and commence construction by the fourth quarter of this year. Once the projects start operations in 2018, they will power 80,000 houses while saving around 156,000 tons of CO2 a year, said the statement.

The Government of Egypt and the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy (MoERE) have set a target of achieving 20 percent of Egypt’s energy generation from renewable sources by 2022. The feed-in tariff programme aims to secure an initial generation of 2,000 MW of solar capacity and 2,000 MW of wind capacity.

Commenting on the signing, Paddy Padmanathan, president and CEO of Acwa Power, said: “We are proud to partner with the Egyptian Government as the government pursues an ambitious goal to ensure reliable lowest cost electricity generation capacity to increase quality of life of the people of Egypt and support continuous industrial expansion of the country, without compromising on its commitment to protect the planet by reducing carbon emission through deployment of increasing levels of renewable energy in the generation portfolio mix.”

ACWA Power is partnering with Tawakol and Hassan Allam Holding, two reputable local companies in Egypt, on the project.

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